This is a preliminary announcement for tryouts for the 2018 iteration of Team Ohio. This will be an all-star team that will compete against other all-star teams at the National All-Star Academic Tournament (NASAT) on June 16-17 in Lexington, Kentucky. Players who are interested in trying out OR members of the community who are willing to staff the tryout should read the information below.

When and where will the tryouts be?

Tryouts will take place in person on Saturday, April 7, immediately following the conclusion of the NAQT State Tournament at OSU. For players who are not attending NAQT State, please arrive at the tournament site before 3:00 PM.

Who is eligible to try out?

Any middle or high school player who attends school in Ohio.

What is the question difficulty and what set are you using?

NASAT is, broadly speaking, written at collegiate difficulty in order to challenge the best players in the country. Past NASAT sets are available at quizbowlpackets.com. Our tryout will use the 2018 Stevenson Memorial Tournament set (SMT), which is written at collegiate regular-minus difficulty. I believe this set will provide contestants with an accessible sampling of college-level questions while still distinguishing between the top players at the tryout. If you are trying out for NASAT, you are declaring that you have not played any mirror of SMT, either in-person or online, and you have not been exposed to any SMT questions through contact with writers, editors, or other teams. If you have been exposed to SMT before this announcement was posted and you still want to try out, contact me immediately so we can figure out what to do.

Does the tryout cost money?

To compensate the hardworking writers and editors who prepared the SMT set, we will charge a fee of $5/player, which will be sent to the head editor (Young Fenimore Lee of Stanford University). I will collect fees in cash from players on the day of the tryout. Payment should not be sent in advance.

What format will the tryouts take?

Players will sign up for the NASAT tryout in advance using the form below (see "OK, how do I register?"). You will be placed in a room with 6-8 other players (depending on number of signups) and play 40 tossups. The scorekeeper/moderator will note who answers which questions in each room, as well as who has the most points total. After two preliminary rounds, a final room of less than or equal to 8 players will be convened and 60 more tossups will be played. At the conclusion of those 60 tossups, the statistics from the final room will determine who makes the team. All statistics will be kept in a publicly viewable online spreadsheet or other system so players will know where they stand. A link to live stats will be sent out before the tryouts begin.

How many players will make the team after tryouts?

I plan to name a starting roster of four players and four alternates in case someone from the main roster cannot attend the tournament. The NASAT distribution is 4/4 for literature, science, and history, 3/3 for fine arts and RMP, and 1/1 social science and geography/current events. We are therefore looking for the four players who can best cover literature, science, history, fine arts, and RMP. Note that these may not be the top four overall scorers! We are looking for players with deep knowledge in their categories who can buzz early on college-difficulty tossups. Only the top four players will make Team Ohio...we will not carry substitutes at the tournament this year.

If I make the team, what are my responsibilities?

If you earn a spot on Team Ohio and accept your place, you are committing to attend NASAT on June 16-17 in Lexington, KY. Players are responsible for arranging their own travel to NASAT (carpooling is encouraged...we can work all that out once the team is set), and for covering their hotel and other expenses. There will also be some online practices for the team that will be scheduled to accommodate player schedules. As a member of the team, you will be expected to maintain and improve your quizbowl skills to help Ohio have the best possible performance at NASAT.

If you are interested in staffing the tryout, please email me or send me a private message through this forum.

This information is also being emailed to coaches around Ohio. If you will be seeing other coaches and players between now and April 7 at league matches, tournaments, etc., please talk about NASAT and direct them to more information if they seem interested!

Update: the editors of the Stevenson Memorial Tournament question set have asked for a mirror fee of $5/player trying out for NASAT, and I think it's important to compensate writers and editors for their work. The announcement above has been added to reflect the requested fee. If any players feel that they are unable to pay the fee for the tryout, please register anyway and reach out to me, as I still would like all interested players to attend.

Does anyone have any information as to when the NASAT tryouts results will be posted? It seems imperative that whoever made the team should start practicing together ASAP, since the competition is only a month away.

I am happy to announce that Clark Smith, Hari Parameswaran, Sam Oguntoyinbo, and John John Groger will represent Ohio at this year's NASAT. The competition was extremely fierce, and I want to congratulate all participants.

All tryout participants should have received an email earlier this week with the final roster as well as the question set used at the tryout. Good luck to all of you playing at OAC State, HSNCT, and NSC this month!

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